Charlie's Angels

CHARLIE’S ANGELS - SONY

Elizabeth Bank's 2019 reboot of the Charlie's Angels franchise is a faux positive and visually flat rendition of a conventional action film. Starring the talents of Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska as the new trio of the iconic Angels — in place of McG's trio of Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu — Bank's film has every chance to craft something worthy of the audiences time but within cheap thrills, terrible camera work and even worse delivery of dialogue, it delivers anything but fun.

Disappointing or underwhelming does not quite cut it here, as Bank's film is more or less a walking, talking disaster. From its dull beginnings, faux chemistry and horrific editing, Bank's reboot struggles to have any inkling of personality. The respective performances are mostly flavourless and devoid of any real charm or believable partnerships. Kristen Stewart plays against her stoic type as Sabina Wilson, delivering a bubbly, overly mischievous role and a performance that does not quite fit in line with the most energetic aspects of her talent. Thus never particularly putting forth any indication of success, only ever feeling forced.

CHARLIE’S ANGELS - SONY

Naomi Scott delivers a decent turn as the often perplexed new recruit in an engaging and immersive role of Elena Houghlin. Scott is undoubtedly the most substantial element here and after her performance as Princess Jasmine in Aladdin, Scott's range is one to be both commended and watched in the foreseeable future due to how versatile and robust the actress evokes her talent. Ella Balinska as Jane Kano, on the other hand, is a performance that struggles. The delivery of dialogue is incredibly sub-par and wooden. Granted, the physicality and confidence thrown into the role is unquestionable but the resulting performance is both off and poorly constructed, being a far bigger proposition than Balinska can handle.

There is nothing here that will stand the test of time or at least not like McG's rendition of this franchise. Admittedly, much of the visual flair and aesthetic was stolen from Lana and Lily Wachowski's The Matrix but even then particular set pieces from McG's Charlie's Angels and its sequel Full Throttle stood out with bravado or prowess. The editing from duo Alan Baumgarten and Mary Jo Markey is delirious and mind-numbing to witness, with cinematography from Bill Pope that is nothing short of underwhelming.

Bank's reboot does so little to impress with all its attributes on offer. It evokes a similar sensibility to that of The Spy Who Dumped Me with far more inferior action sequences and a far less engaging screenplay. A post-credit set up does little to offer anything in the way of a potential legacy and with the resulting box office takings performing incredibly lower than expected, it may be a blessing in disguise that this film won't disappoint more viewers than intended.

Charlie's Angels is released November 29th, 2019